Egypt sentences 8 to death over 2013 protests

A supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi gestures during clashes with police in Cairo on August 14, 2013. (AFP photo)

A criminal court in Egypt has sentenced to death eight defendants in a case related to the deadly protests of 2013 that followed the military-led ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi.

The court issued the sentences on Saturday and, as a formality, referred them to Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country's top theological authority. The Mufti is normally expected to announce his non-binding opinion in cases of capital punishment.

The eight, among 68 defendants in the case, had been charged with roles in killing six officers in a police station in a Cairo suburb on August 14, 2013. The suspected attack came after police violently dispersed a sit-in in support of Morsi. At least 600, all of them supporters of Morsi who demanded his reinstatement, were killed in the police violence.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi run as Egyptian security forces run toward them on August 14, 2014. 

The death sentences are the latest to grip followers of Morsi and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood party. Morsi, the first democratically-elected president in Egypt’s history who came to power following the 2011 revolution, was ousted just a year into office in July 2013. Former army chief and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is believed to have led the coup that removed Morsi from power. Tens of thousands of people have been jailed from the ranks of Brotherhood while many, including those in the party’s top brass, face death sentences or life in jail.

There was no official comment whether those sentenced to death on Saturday were Brotherhood members.

Rights campaigners have repeatedly censured Sisi’s crackdown on the Brotherhood, saying the military strongman is using life or death sentences against members of the group to muzzle dissent. Authorities have also intensified issuing arrest warrants for militants suspected of having links to the Brotherhood. That comes as the military has failed to stop an increase in terrorist attacks on civilians and security forces in mainland Egypt over the past months.